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Born the second of the five sons of the artist Augustus John (1878–1961) and his first wife, Ida John (née Nettleship),[1] John was raised with his siblings in an undisciplined manner, frequently dressing as ragamuffins, to such an extent that his maternal grandmother attempted to secure and raise them herself.[2] At the age of nine, he went with his brothers to Dane Court preparatory school in Parkstone, Dorset.[3] There he won the prize for the best gentleman in the school and a copy of Jane's Fighting Ships, and it was this, together with a wish to seek a more orderly existence, that inspired him to join the Royal Navy.[1] His father strenuously objected, but his stepmother help persuade him to support his son.[4] In 1916 he entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne on the Isle of Wight, at the age of thirteen.[5] He transferred to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1917 and passed out eighty-third of a hundred in 1920.[6] John is remembered at Dartmouth by the naming of the college's theatre and lecture hall, the Caspar John Hall, affectionately known as 'CJH'.[7]

John served in the Second World War initially with HMS York, taking part in the Atlantic convoys, participating in the Norwegian campaign and transporting arms around the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt for use in the western desert campaign.[13] He was mentioned in despatches on 11 March 1941.[14] Promoted to captain on 30 June 1941, he became Director-General of Naval Aircraft Production at the Ministry of Aircraft Production in Summer 1941 and then naval air attaché at the British embassy in Washington D.C. March 1943.[13] There he arranged the training of British pilots in Canada and the USA and met the Russian aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky with whom he discussed the introduction of helicopters for the Royal Navy after the War.[6] He was given command of the aircraft-carrier HMS Pretoria Castle in August 1944 and of the brand-new light carrier HMS Ocean in June 1945.[13]

The aircraft-carrier HMS Pretoria Castle which John commanded towards the end of the Second World War